{"id":20713,"date":"2016-05-25T22:43:04","date_gmt":"2016-05-26T03:43:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=20713"},"modified":"2016-05-25T22:43:04","modified_gmt":"2016-05-26T03:43:04","slug":"john-cena-says-hes-driven-authenticity-wont-turn-heel-despite-wanting-offers-advice-wwe-locker-room","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2016\/05\/25\/john-cena-says-hes-driven-authenticity-wont-turn-heel-despite-wanting-offers-advice-wwe-locker-room\/","title":{"rendered":"John Cena says he&#8217;s driven by &#8220;authenticity,&#8221; why he won&#8217;t turn heel despite wanting to, offers advice to WWE locker room"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-1790343862\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><p>WWE top star John Cena continues to branch out beyond WWE by appearing at speaking engagements, such as a\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.fastcocreate.com\/3060120\/wwe-superstar-john-cena-lays-out-the-true-meaning-of-authenticity\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;Fast Company&#8221; conference Wednesday in Los Angeles<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Cena stressed &#8220;authenticity&#8221; as the driving force of his mission to grow WWE&#8217;s business. He also talked about wanting to turn heel, but not pushing for it because that&#8217;s not what his character is about. Cena also sent a message to the locker room to listen to the fans, not themselves.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Authenticity&#8221; is also a driving force for many WWE fans resenting Cena&#8217;s character through the years, feeling like he portrays a goodie-two-shoes, product of the WWE machine without the in-ring skills to back up his main event status compounded by his\u00a0history of &#8220;poopy jokes&#8221; promos.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The reason that everybody wants to attach themselves to being authentic [is] because the word &#8216;authentic&#8217; means, pardon my French, you give a s&#8212;.\u00a0But \u2018authentic\u2019 is thrown around as \u2018think outside the box\u2019 and all the other b.s. we hear,&#8221;\u00a0Cena said in a chat\u00a0with Co.Create Editor Eric Alt\u00a0at the conference, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fastcocreate.com\/3060120\/wwe-superstar-john-cena-lays-out-the-true-meaning-of-authenticity\" target=\"_blank\">transcribed by FastCoCreate.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When I (came to WWE) in 2002, it was more like the Jerry Springer show and now it\u2019s really a good family program. So I&#8217;ve had to change the tools in my toolbox and adapt to my surroundings yet stay authentic to myself. My experiences in the wrestling ring have set me up for what I\u2019m trying to do outside.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Included in Cena&#8217;s experiences are deciding that he is an adult male within the 18-49 demographic that routinely boos his character at WWE shows, but he&#8217;s not going to change his character because it&#8217;s &#8220;authentic&#8221; to another segment of the audience.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As a 39-year-old adult, I certainly would love to be a bad guy or to push the limits of the broadcast, but that is not my job. My job is to work for a company that produces PG television and do the best I can. In redefining my brand, I\u2019m looking for opportunities outside of the WWE because I realize I have to play within certain goalposts,&#8221; Cena said.<\/p>\n<p>To that end, Cena said he wants to see the WWE locker room listen to the audience more, instead of wrestling for themselves.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-1989782689\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>&#8220;A lot of our guys, because they want to put on what they think is a good performance for themselves, totally ignore the most valuable tool in the toolbox and that is the paying consumer,&#8221; Cena said. &#8220;When you empower the audience to be a part of the show it is a tool in your toolbox that you must not ignore.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Cena also talked about diving deeper into the behind-the-scenes aspect of WWE, not just wanting to show up, wrestle, and leave. He said that drives his &#8220;authentic&#8221; connection to WWE, which leads to a passionate connection to all aspects of the business.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I know WWE\u00a0half-a-billion social followers. I know our business model to drive more people toward the network. I know our t-shirt sales. I know our consumer fan base. I know our attendance for live events. I know we\u2019re not deep enough business-wise in China so I\u2019m doing what I can to get us into China,&#8221; Cena said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I\u2019m not just a dude who laces his shoes up and slides into the ring &#8211; I love the brand. And if I&#8217;m not active in the brand physically, I will be active in the brand mentally. And I do not align myself with properties that I don\u2019t feel that passionate about. To me, that\u2019s what being authentic is all about.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-1010183067\"><div id=\"pwtor-3128544130\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>WWE top star John Cena continues to branch out beyond WWE by appearing at speaking engagements, such as a\u00a0&#8220;Fast Company&#8221; conference Wednesday in Los Angeles. Cena stressed &#8220;authenticity&#8221; as the driving force of his mission <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2016\/05\/25\/john-cena-says-hes-driven-authenticity-wont-turn-heel-despite-wanting-offers-advice-wwe-locker-room\/\" title=\"John Cena says he&#8217;s driven by &#8220;authenticity,&#8221; why he won&#8217;t turn heel despite wanting to, offers advice to WWE locker room\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3876,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[116,71],"class_list":["post-20713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news_wwe","tag-john-cena","tag-wwe"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2015\/11\/CenaPhotoWK_3x2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20713"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20714,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20713\/revisions\/20714"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}